1. Technical Field
The following description relates to one or more techniques for an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus having an endless belt.
2. Related Art
An image forming apparatus has been known that includes a belt and is configured to form an image on a sheet in an electrophotographic method. The known image forming apparatus may, for instance, be a direct-printing type image forming apparatus configured to directly transfer a developer image onto a sheet being conveyed on a belt. Alternatively, the known image forming apparatus may be an intermediate-transfer type image forming apparatus configured to transfer a developer image onto a belt, and then transfer onto a sheet the developer image transferred on the belt.
In the electrophotographic type image forming apparatus including the belt, regardless of whether the apparatus is of the direct-printing type or the intermediate-transfer type, it is required to remove from the belt adhesive material such as development agent adhering onto the belt. For instance, a belt cleaner configured to remove adhesive material from the belt may include a cleaning roller, a cleaning shaft, and a scraping blade.
The cleaning roller may be configured to remove adhesive material from the belt while rotating in a rotational tangential direction opposite to a traveling direction of the belt at a contact portion between the cleaning roller and the belt. The cleaning shaft may be configured to remove adhesive material from the cleaning roller while rotating in a rotational tangential direction identical to a rotational tangential direction of the cleaning roller at a contact portion between the cleaning shaft and the cleaning roller. The scraping blade may be configured to scrape off adhesive material from the cleaning shaft while sliding relative to and in contact with an outer circumferential surface of the cleaning shaft.